OREANDA-NEWS. January 23, 2009.The handover of voting forms produced at Goznak for His Holiness Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church elections took place on January 23 at Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

As Alexander Timakov, Deputy Director of Printing Production of Goznak, announced, five types of security forms for the five election stages were developed and manufactured at short notice. The first two election stages will take place at the Bishops' Council. The form for the first stage is a voting paper consisting of 10 sheets with over 145 names of Metropolitans, Archbishops and Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Due to the fact that the results of the first election stage are not known, forms for the next stages do not contain any printed text. After the results of another stage are announced, the corresponding names of the candidates will be printed in the security forms with the help of a printer.

Each of the five types of forms varies in its colour and the design of the security cell printed on it. Besides, the voting forms for the Bishops’ and the Local Councils have different watermarks. The watermarks are repeated inscriptions “Bishops’ Council – 2009” and “Local Council – 2009”.

The Patriarchate came to know about the necessity to such an order at the end of December, 2008. All the necessary preparation works were carried out urgently. The colours (pontoons) of ink for the security cell were provided by the Patriarchate. But it turned out that they differ very little from each other on the paper, therefore the specialists of Goznak themselves had to choose the colours so that the forms were different from one another visually.

The most long-term and labor-consuming works – the watermark manufacture and formation of paper with watermark – were carried out at the Saint-Petersburg Paper Mill – Branch of Goznak. On January 13 the ready paper was already delivered to Moscow, because to carry out the order the specialists of the Paper Mill worked throughout the New Year holidays. The voting forms were printed at the Moscow Printing Factory – Branch of Goznak. On January 23 the voting forms packed in the special security holographic film were delivered to Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The film protects the forms from unauthorized and repeated opening – when the film is unsticked from the package, the hologram disintegrates and appears on the package paper. The forms produced under the order of Patriarchy are not a commercial order, they were produced according to the gift contract.

On the photo: the assignment documents are signed by Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal See Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad Kirill and Sales Director of Goznak Victor Barilkin.